


Antivenom

by RedTeamShark



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Author Chose Not To Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2019-09-12 03:49:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16865578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: I’ve always been different, but so has she. Maybe that’s what drew us together.





	Antivenom

**Author's Note:**

> Proper warnings, tags, etc, may come in the future. For the time being I'm frantically transferring my content to a stable platform amidst growing concerns about tumblr's inevitable implosion.
> 
> Apologies for flooding the fandom page.

We’re a team, more than anything. We’re X-Ray and Vav, never one without the other. Perfectly tandem compliments to each other (at least, that’s what we claim—the reality is a bit different).

I’ve always been different from others, never had the same sense of belonging that other girls did growing up. And, you know, superpowers don’t exactly help with that. ‘Mutant’ ‘freak’… They might just be words that kids throw around, but they hurt a lot more when you know they’re true.

Until I met her. She was the only person that didn’t treat me like I was a freak, that didn’t avoid me like the plague. She treated me like I was a human being, just another person.

It’s so cliché to fall in love with the barista in the coffee shop, but I definitely wasn’t going back there for the overpriced mochas. When I got her number on a napkin, it was the most normal I’d felt in my entire life.

And when she confided in me that she was a little different too… It was the first time I didn’t feel alone.

We were Rae and Gabby, completely inseparable. She worked at the coffee shop and I worked at the game store and we stayed up too late, drank too much caffeine, and owned the boys online at video games together. We held hands and took walks in the park, shared kisses behind the trees. Went out to dinner and teased each other, gently, about our food choices.

We were  _normal_.

Then we became something more.

It was the fire that started it. We were walking back from dinner to our apartment, commenting on the bright orange glow of the sunset, right up until we realized that the sunset was  _behind_  us and that glow was a burning building. People were gathered behind the barricade, whispering that there were still people trapped inside, that the firefighters couldn’t get to them.

I remember the look we shared, two innocent bystanders to an oncoming tragedy. I remember the moment, my heart picking up pace as I turned back to the burning home, pulled my glasses off and squinted at it.

“Three of them.” I said, frowning, shaking my head. “No, four. There’s a kid in there.”

Gabby’s hand tight in mine. “Rae…”

“We have to help.” It wasn’t a matter of opinion, it was pure fact. We could help, we knew we could, and we had to.

Gabby’s hand was still in mine, but the world around us seemed to almost stop, no one moving, the flames licking slowly at the sky, embers and ashes suspended in the air around us as we moved inside. We were past the barricades and through the ruined front door when time picked up again. Next to me, my girlfriend was breathing heavily, looking at the ground. “We need to move fast.” I reminded, tugging her along.

“Oh, ha ha.” She followed me, trusting me to pick out the right path. It was the first time we’d ever really shown each other our abilities, the first time it hadn’t just been a discussion.

I led the way through the wreck, looking around carefully, wiping sweat from my brow and wishing I’d worn my hair in a ponytail—or that I’d just chopped it off last time I was at the salon. We found the first three people, exchanging a glance before Gabby grabbed onto all of them. Again the world around us slowed to a crawl, the two of us leading them outside to safety, depositing them near an ambulance. When things came back up to speed, we ducked around the corner, catching our breath.

“The kid’s still in there, Gabby.” I whispered, squeezing her hand as the fire roared around us and paramedics rushed to help the people we’d already rescued. A headache was pounding at my temples, my vision blurry even with my glasses on to prevent my power from being used.

“I don’t know if I can do this much longer, Rae.” She let go of my hand, pulling her hair back over her shoulders before grabbing on again, squeezing hard. “We can’t just leave a kid in there, can we?”

“I don’t want to.”

“We could die.”

“Or we could turn this thing we’ve always seen as a curse into a gift.” We looked at each other, searching each other’s eyes, before she leaned forward and kissed me.

Once again, Gabby slowed time to almost a complete stop, the two of us entering the burning building. We fought our way through the flames and wreckage towards the back room. Somewhere along the way I lost her hand, tripping over an unnoticed obstacle and going to my knees. “Rae!”

“I’m fine!” I called back, lifting a hand and waving, squinting around the room. There, under the bed. “Found him!” I crawled across the floor, ducking low and holding out my hand. “Hey, it’s okay, come on!”

The kid was terrified, crying. Distantly, I heard Gabby not just call my name, but  _scream_  it. I had time to look over my shoulder, to see the ceiling above me crack.

Things were a blur after that. One moment certain death was falling on me, the next I was outside, held in Gabby’s arms with the kid a few feet away from us, held similarly by a woman who I supposed must be his mother. Gabby ducked away from the crowd, not setting me down until we were several blocks away from the fire.

“Rae, don’t you ever do that again!” She cried, sweat and tears tracking clear patches through the soot on her face. She shook me, hugged me close, kissed me. “I thought I was going to lose you!”

Reality fell into place and I started shaking, sobbing in her arms.

–

I don’t cry after we do the hero thing now. Well, hardly ever. But sometimes she cries too.

We’re better at it now, I like to think. Gabby doesn’t get tired as easily and I don’t have migraines after using my powers. Saving that family from that fire, it made us both feel good. After we went home and showered and changed, we lay in bed, holding each other and not talking about it. I don’t know about her, but I didn’t want to think about it, not right then.

The next morning it was on the news, the family that was miraculously saved. The little boy saying that two angels pulled him out of there. If that kid thinks angels wear skinny jeans and band t-shirts, well… good on him. It’s not a bad picture.

Things escalated from there, somehow, probably because Gabby and I are both more than a little crazy and pretty stupid. Costumes, capes, nicknames. X-Ray, logical enough, but don’t even ask me how she came up with Vav… or her emblem. I don’t get it. I don’t think anyone but her really understands why the bowler hat.

And somehow in the escalation, we became known. Real heroes, people called us. The news wanted to talk to us. The  _police_  wanted to talk to us, which was pretty terrifying. There were people that found out we were genetic mutants and decried us… And other people that celebrated us, came forward in support of everyone with mutations.

But through it all, it’s me and Gabby. Holding hands in the park, kissing in the dark, and drinking too much caffeine while we play video games. We’re together, and that’s all that matters to us. Our love makes us strong.

We’re also made of so many goddamn clichés it makes me sick.


End file.
